It was the seat of the Crown captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a district of colonial Brazil under Portuguese rule.

In the pre-independence era (comprising both the colonial and the United Kingdom periods), the city council discharged both Executive, as well as limited Legislative and Judicial functions.

After independence, city councils lost its Judicial powers with the establishment of an independent Judicial Branch distinct from the political Branches of the State, but, during the Empire of Brazil era (1822–1889), city councils remained invested with limited legislative powers (the enactment of municipal postures, in Portuguese posturas municipais), as well as with Executive functions, with no office of mayor.

However, until 1834, unlike other Provinces, that were led by a president appointed by the imperial government, alongside an elected provincial general council, the Province of Rio de Janeiro, because it contained the Empire's capital, had no president or general council, instead being administered directly by the imperial government, under the authority of the Minister and Secretary of State for the Affairs of the Empire (Ministro e Secretário de Estado para os Negócios do Império), the country's Justice and Interior minister.

However, in 1834, an amendment to the Constitution of the Empire of Brazil (the 1834 Additional Act), among other provisions, set the city of Rio de Janeiro, as the country's capital, apart from the Nation's provinces.

The seat of the province of Rio de Janeiro was moved to the city of Niterói, and the city of Rio de Janeiro was included in a Neutral Municipality (in Portuguese, Município Neutro), belonging to no province, and answering directly to the imperial government.

However, as a result of the 1834 reform, since it was no longer part of any province, the city of Rio de Janeiro gained direct representation in the Imperial Parliament: the people of Neutral Municipality were represented in the General Assembly (the Empire's Parliament) by a delegation of senators and members of the Chamber of Deputies, elected as if the Neutral Municipality were a province.

However, the Federal Government of the newly created Republic assumed the power of appointing the city's executive leaders, and the power to elect the municipal executive of the Republic's capital was only given to the people decades after the capital of Brazil had been transferred from Rio to Brasília, while in the imperial period the leadership of the municipality was elected by popular vote.

In 1891, that temporary arrangement ceased, the Council of Intendentes was abolished, and the permanent structures of the government of the Federal District were created, with the recreation the city council, resuming the old name of Câmara Municipal, and with the establishment of the separate executive office of the mayor of the Federal District.

Accordingly, all mayors of the Federal District during the period when Rio de Janeiro was the capital of the Republic (1889–1960) were presidential appointees.

When Vargas was deposed, Dodsworth was removed as Interventor by transitional administration of President José Linhares, and, appointed by Linhares, Filadelfo de Azevedo served as the second and last Federal Interventor, pending elections for a National Constituent Assembly and for the city council of the Federal District.

Appointed by President Eurico Gaspar Dutra, Hildebrando de Araújo Góis became the first mayor of the Federal District after the termination of the Intervention on 2 February 1946.

The first governor of Guanabara, José Sette Câmara Filho, was appointed on an interim capacity by the president of the Republic, after his nomination was approved by the Brazilian Federal Senate, to lead a provisional Administration until the State could organize itself and elect its officers.

As part of the process of transition to democracy, popular elections for state governors were reinstated from 1982 onwards.

This was possible only due to the exceptionally centralizing constitutional legislation that governed Brazil during the 1964–1985 military regime: the merger was implemented by federal statute, without any vote of the populations affected and without any consultation with the state assemblies involved.